Saturday, February 26, 2011

Warpaint have been ceaselessly compared to Joy Division. Seasoned listeners will notice that this similarity is slight at best on their first full-length The Fool. Warpaint does not give a listener images in stark black and white, but instead in an influx of color. Moody, capturing the dreaminess of longing, a common feeling amongst women, The Fool is anything but a doppelganger of the all-male Joy Division. Warpaint's music is the sound of feeling removed, underwater, yet dreaming in waking. It is the soundtrack for a girl who spends the afternoon listening to records and watching rainbows reflect off of a crystal in her windowsill. The Fool grips the heart in a lull both sweet and low.

Even Warpaint's rock-ish tracks from their earlier Exquisite Corpse EP still carry this feeling. Led Zeppelin-esque long jams, backed my Stella Mozgawa's skilled, mature, and emotional percussion, still sound like Warpaint. They are musicians whose skill accompanies emotion, rather than trumps its effect.

The Fool is a truly unique record, even in this age of experimental/ art-rock/ indie darling/ broken instrument bands. And unlike a lot of experiments in modern music, The Fool actually works. Warpaint will have a chapter in the history or music, as well as the history of women, years from now. The Fool is anything but foolish.